4 Awful Things the GOP is Saying About Refugee Children

The crisis along our country’s border is growing worse every day, as Republicans fight against any sort of immigration reform prior to election day, especially not anything suggested by the administration. A number of conservative politicians are too busy opposing every solution President Barack Obama offers, preferring to score points versus find a compromise for a very serious problem. Meanwhile, the vitriol they have spewed upon those who are trying to find refuge and protection in the United States, a large percentage of whom are unaccompanied children, has become epic.

Here are four of the worst things the GOP has said about the undocumented immigrants coming into the country:

1) They are like the invasion of Normandy!

According to Rep. Louie Gohmert, the undocumented children coming into Texas are an invasion, like soldiers storming the beach during World War II, and that means that warlike efforts should be taken to stop them. Rep. Gohment recommended the Texas Governor “use whatever means, whether itís troops, even using ships of war,” to stem the tide, and swore that if he didn’t, the sea of children coming into the U.S. would use up all of the resources of the taxpayers of the country.

Texas is a “state that is being invaded ó in our case more than twice as many just in recent months, more than twice as many than invaded France on D-Day with a doubling of that coming en route,” claimed Rep. Gohmert, who said the children were coming in droves to steal precious government handouts.

2) They are diseased.

If there is a conservative crisis, you know that talk show host Rush Limbaugh is in the thick of it. Recently, he’s been telling his audience that keeping undocumented children out of the country is a public health issues since, unlike the old days of Ellis Island, today’s children have disease.† “I have seen stories about the sickness and the disease that is arriving with these unaccompanied children,” said Limbaugh. “And I’ve also seen stories where doctors have been threatened if they report this.† But some of them went ahead and reported it despite the threats.† There were more things, of course, at Ellis Island that they tried to weed out, potential criminals and this kind of thing. But a large part of it was to keep deadly infectious diseases en masse out of the country. ”

3) They have Ebola!

While Limbaugh may have been worried about some sort of every day infection, Georgia Rep. Phil Gingrey has a more specific concern — Ebola. Apparently, he’s convinced that those children coming over the border are unvaccinated, meaning they are bringing that particular disease with them. “Reports of illegal immigrants carrying deadly diseases such as swine flu, dengue fever, Ebola virus and tuberculosis are particularly concerning,” Gingrey wrote, according to Mother Jones. “Many of the children who are coming across the border also lack basic vaccinations such as those to prevent chicken pox or measles.” Ebola? As a disease found only in Africa, and which has a tendency to spread fast and kill just as fast, it’s pretty near impossible that those being held in the detention centers have Ebola virus. Anyway, as the Texas Observer reports, Central America has much higher rates of vaccination than Texas, so if there’s disease spread threat, odds are our politicians are pointing their fingers at the wrong population.

4) Obama is letting them in so Democrats can win elections.

That’s the implicit message behind a muddled piece of graffiti on a center in Maryland that was rumored to be under consideration as a new facility for those who have migrated into the country. ďNo illeagles here. No undocumented Democrats,” reads the spray paint on the wall. The idea that the administration is letting potential voters into the country to eventually prop up Democratic candidates is another one being pushed by Rep. Gohmert, and it’s one the Tea Party has run wild with. Over at Hotair.com, pundits bemoan that not only will the influx of people entering the country vote Democrat, but it will ripple out into the overall voting population, too. “Itís not just votes from immigrants themselves, in other words, that are padding Democratic totals on election day,” writes Hotair.com. “The wider local population is itself more apt to tilt Democratic as the immigrant numbers increase, compounding the electoral effect.”

Republicans will not be able to hold off immigration reform forever, as without some form of intervention, the crisis will continue to get worse as migration grows. The party’s desperation to scapegoat and stereotype the children arriving in the country may play to their base, their primary focus as they head into election day. But once the election is over, policy will have to be drafted, and at that point the public will want leadership and compromise, not rhetoric and demonizing.

Instead of amnesty or harsh punishment, I would simply give those who turn themselves in and go home a chance to apply for worker visa's. Then speed up the application process as much as possible. Most of them are here because they fulfill labor shortages. After that deport and ban for 10 years any discovered that don't volunteer themselves.

The "anchor baby" thing is mostly a myth, so I don't think anything needs to be done there.

Your assumption that everyone in the world wants to move here and become citizens is questionable. Many illegal immigrants come here for work, but don't really want to stay here. They want to make some money to send home. The cost of living is high here, and the education and healthcare is pretty sub par compared to other 1st world nations and illegal immigration slows considerably when the economy is bad. There is not much evidence backing up GOP "anchor baby" claims. Even if we had open borders people would stop coming when jobs ran out. Though obviously we can't have completely open borders.

Other countries with the most lax immigration laws like Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Brazil, ect. are not doing so bad. All your doomsday alarmism is hyperbole, though not totally without truth. We are in debt largely because of our bloated military, corruption and constant handouts and pandering to the more

Brian wrote "Instead of calling me a liar, why don't you propose solutions?"

Well aside from the increased minimum wages and harsher punishment (though not 20 years, that is just draconian) for people who knowingly employ illegals that I already suggested. Now if they actually abuse or defraud undocumented workers then give them a nice long sentence.

Maybe bring home more overseas troops and use them to help patrol the border. They're being paid salaries already so it would not be a big extra cost. Drones are fairly cheap too of course, especially for remote areas.

The illegals who are simply overstaying their visa's are not technically breaking the law as far as I know, so I suppose it wouldn't hurt to change that.

With the growing labor shortages in many labor-intensive industries we'll likely need to increase the number of worker Visa's, not decrease them. The labor shortages are expected to grow considerably as the baby boomers age the next couple of decades. If businesses have enough legal workers with Visa's they will be less likely to risk hiring undocumented workers.

I think some illegal immigrants fall for the myth of the "American Dream" only to discover living in the US illegally is much harder than they were expected. If there is any way to educate people about the reality of it, it may reduce immigration some.

Instead of amnesty or harsh punishment, I would simply give those who turn themselves in and go home a chance to apply for worke

Brian F.....You still don't mention what state YOU are from.....I would bet it's not a Northern state..... you may have to deal with pesky Canadians trying to cross your / our border.Do you remember all those "conscientious objectors" that crossed our border INTO Canada during the Vietnam war ?.....we accepted them and probably some are STILL here....

Mary B I have no problem with taking up to 50,000 of these children. Certainly no sane person wants to send these children back to a horrible life of poverty, gang violence and possible death. But, I fear that if we accept them, we will have an endless wave of illegal immigrant children trying to get in. Poverty is ubiquitous all over the world, and we can't take in everybody. Perhaps other countries could help. If the USA, takes in 50,000, Canada could take in 50,000, the UK 50,000, Germany 50.000, Brazil 50,000 and so on. As I said before the USA has very serious problems, and they can't accept an endless stream of people trying to enter the country. As it is many people all over the world wait for 15 years to get in the country, Yes, the wait times are too long, and we need to fix that. But we let in 1.5 million people each year, and that is more than most countries. We simply can't let more people come in, than that because it overwhelms are schools, hospitals, and resources. Perhaps you could petition your government to help us out, and take 50,000 of these children. A multinational shared approach would ease the burden on the USA.

Matt L I am simply proposing that we enforce illegal immigration laws. I have no problem with the 1.5 million legal immigrants, who follow our laws, and come into the country each year. It's not like we don't have a problem, with 12 million illegal aliens in the country, and 50,000 alien children at our border. Every country has to enforce tough illegal immigration laws, or their populations will increase to quickly, and overburden their schools, hospitals, and resources. Instead of calling me a liar, why don't you propose solutions? I would have no problem with taking 50,000 of these children at the border, if I knew that was all we would have to take. But, I fear that we will have an endless wave of children at our border, that will never stop. Mexico changed their law in 2011, because of the embarrassment that they received after criticizing the Arizona law, when their laws were much tougher. For years, Mexico was very tough on illegal aliens. Much tougher than we were. I wish we could have open borders, and let anybody who wants come in, but with 7 billion people in the world, and 5 billion living in poverty, we cannot do that, because our population would increase to over a billion people like China, and India. I am sorry that you have so much anger at those who want to enforce a necessary law, that all nations must enforce. I suggest you go to the population connection website, and educate yourself.

And you make "compassionate" sound like a dirty word. lol You're right, it is not worth getting angry about your comments. Pity for you and your buddy Daryll seems more appropriate. Plus Elaine actually managed to make you sound like nice people in comparison. She's been trolling care2 for years though.

Brian F. so the marine and trucker were wrongly arrested by corrupt cops for weapons smuggling. They were not arrested because of your imaginary "tough Mexican Immigration laws."

Your elaborate proposals for reducing illegal immigration sound like they would cost taxpayers even more amnesty. 10 years in prison? That would cost taxpayers almost $300k per person. Now sticking employers of illegals in prison would probably help some, but I think a year or 2 would be plenty of incentive there. Still, a lot of illegals start their own businesses and are not employees.

You seem eager to spread lies and hatred about illegal immigrants. I have to wonder what such an apparently hateful and selfish person is even doing on Care2? Were you picked on by Mexicans when you were a kid or something? The kids are not to blame, it is adults who are sending them here.